I keep everything I don’t even want.
Things that make me sad.
Like old tennis shoes.
That are stained with mud.
Scratched and tattered with memories.
So I-
Put them in a closet for safe keeping.
Keeping them safe in the shadows.
Where they can be buried under something better.
Just seems-
More comfortable to me.
Just seems-
Harmless to me.
I keep everything I don’t even want.
Gritting my teeth.
And shoving shoes.
As if that will make them disappear.
My home is filled with degrading losses.
Instruments that I didn't learn to play.
Seeds that abortive to spring up
Backyard hot tub is now stage.
Books bought but never read,
Plants that perished
Dreadful seats
And me.
Trite
Written: May 31, 2022
Brrrring Brrring Brrring
The shoppers are hoarding! Yells a voice on the phone.
Call everyone! Tell them! Call everybody!
Who is this? I ask.
Silence
“Is it Judy?”
No answer.
Hazel?
Nothing.
Mabel?
Yes!
Who is hoarding and what are they hoarding?
EVERYBODY! She yelled.
Could you be more specific?
“I don’t know their names, but the stores are out of Kool-aid.”
“I don’t drink Kool-aid”, I tell her.
“What about apple juice? Do you drink apple juice?”
Sometimes.
Call the others she says. Warn everyone. It is our duty.
Tell them to get to the stores and buy everything.
Isn’t that hoarding? I ask her.
Not if they did it first, she says.
After she hangs up I realize
the only person I know named Mable died three years ago.
They were extra circumspect in handling the matter
whilst others shrivel up they became fatter
where rules and regulations stamp authority
dictating subordinating those with less money.
Will they ever cease their ways to deliver some of fair?
Will they ever value people just enough to even share?
Will they ever see that hoarding money is unfit?
Will they ever have remorse for the evil they commit?
Will they ever put people first and business further back?
Will they ever know intelligence clearly they do lack?
For higher thought and reason evidentially has declined
when those that have the power fail to be kind.
Darn covid has most surely created,
toilet rolls as the product predated,
and I reached my goals;
hoarded two hundred rolls,
but suffer from being constipated.
THE JUNK, THE CLUTTER
THAT GETS IN THE WAY
PICKING UP ITEMS FROM DAY TODAY
OVER CLEANING, EXTRA CLEANING
DO THEY CARE
LET ME RELAX, OH MY!!!
ANOTHER FULL DAY OF TASKS
MAYBE NEED TO STAY ALONE
THEREFORE, THE HOARDING
THEY MIGHT WILL OWN
TOO MUCH TO CLEAN
GETTING OVERWHELMING
FOR IT IS TIRESOME
A PLACE OF DWELLING
CLEANING BEHIND THEM
IS A HUGE JOB TO DO
ONE-DAY IT WILL BE BETTER
AS A GIVEN CLUE.
CLEAN, ORGANIZE
A NEAT HOME TO STAY
NICE ATMOSPHERE
LEAVING, GONE
TO A PLACE FAR FAR AWAY.
ADDING MORE AND MORE
SUBTRACT AS ONE GO
THEREFORE THE STUFF WILL NOT CREATE
FROM ROOM TO ROOM
OR DOOR TO DOOR.
CLEANING, IS A GREAT FEELING
FOR REAL, STUFF AT THE TOP OF THE CEILING
THERE IS HELP ALONG THE WAY
I PRAY FOR ALL
TO GET PROFESSIONAL HELP SOMEDAY.
"TOUGH LOVE"
A PERSON THAT CARES
AS THEY SO DO SHARE.
Not often
you find such a landslide
of conkers
but my father saw them
glossy brown
among the hedgehog casing.
So we foraged
with the rove beetle, earthworm, mite,
lifting box-loads of mahogany jewels
into the back of the Riley.
Going home
I was ready to stage my strung shells
for the big fight
in the playground.
Time was short
and I was in a hurry
to catch all the fun I could hold.
Next term
it could be origami
or the sprung reel
of the Yo-yo
and then the winter snows.
A hoarder? Me? No way.
I have more than one path in almost every room.
The dogs can always find their way out.
Of course I keep my garbage. Spies would love to have that on the curb.
You never know when you are going to need that egg carton, right?
You do-gooders can get off my property!
It should not bother anyone else how I live my life.
Gladys, can I put some more barrels in your yard?
What about beside the shed?
Just good stuff I might need later.
I promise there are no rats in these.
A truckload or two. Just for a couple of years.
You are as bad as the do-gooders!
I hate you all!
He was known as an eccentric;
Saving all of those bolts in a bucket
and for what?
No one really knew, except himself.
He kept numerous old jugs and cartons
around the house,
as if they were valued treasures.
Old string and ropes that he’d saved,
were tied in numerous knots;
each knot, the same distance apart.
There were shelves in his garage,
sporting old prescription containers,
full of small nails and tacks.
Old cardboard from laundered shirts,
and gardening magazines, stacked high;
reeking of must and mildew.
No one really understood why he saved everything.
His yard, full of buckets, sticks and…
old nylon hose, and torn pieces of worn shirts,
hung from the rafters in his garden shed.
See, he was a crack’in gardener;
his tomatoes were staked;
tied to the sticks with the old rags and nylons.
The buckets, he carried to the neighbors,
filled with luscious produce
and everyone in the neighborhood,
savored, the fruits of his labor,
for years on end.
Hoarding is hiding making hard findings.It’s a consumer binding it’s wrong always hiding.Everything on this world is opened and easy reaching.Hoarding is causing
hardships and against the way of friendship!
I am in my beautifully decorated office where I have dragged overflow
A baby gift that should have been given over to the new mama long ago,
Reams of paper that are not going to walk themselves to the printer.
Notebooks and pencils that could be put on a shelf for the winter.
It is weird that my office was gorgeous for a month or so
Then I started dragging and dumping when I should have said whoa.
Sure in three weeks I discarded seven truckloads of junk
But to think I am a neatnick is a complete load of bunk.
The real problem is that I started five projects at the same time.
They overwhelmed me, shut me down, and gave me walls I wanted to climb.
I have not seen my relatives or my friends although three weeks I have been home.
I am sorting and throwing, every pencil box, toothbrush, and comb.
When I get finished, it will be such a welcome sigh of relief.
Packrat people should move every year or two is my honest belief.
Hoarding can be quite a mess
In front of you I will confess
That the rest of my life through
Will be collecting stuff from you
Your hugs I will take everyday
Never throwing one away
I will embrace them one by one
Until I've collected a ton
Kisses always have a place
Soft and tender on my face
Always keeping them so dear
In my thoughts and everywhere
Your love will never be tossed out
I'll keep it treasured there's no doubt
Inside it will stay so strong
Holding on, it's never gone
You will never have concern
That I'll trash, throw out or burn
Any part that you have given
This clutter has kept me livin'
Very neatly and secure
Like nobody else before
Was inspired to write this from
watching Hoarders
The world’s mine to obtain;
I will firmly grasp all of the treasures it holds.
The world’s mine to obtain,
full of living toys existing to entertain.
Overflowing with precious gems, silvers, and golds,
my safe to store everything ‘til it rots and molds.
The world’s mine to obtain.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.